Jason goes to Dead Channels--Day 4

The easiest night of the festival, only one movie. And that movie was the ever-so-British (i.e., stately and reserved, but creepy and scary. Also remarkably intelligent) "The Disappeared". This was the U.S. premiere (possibly the world premiere? I'm not sure), and we had a beautiful, clean, straight from the lab 35 mm print (a little side note, the Roxie's digital projector has a dead pixel , so for digital movies there's a glaring red dot in the mid-right hand side of the screen. So besides film just being awesome, I get extra-excited when it's film at the Roxie).

As for the movie, Matthew Ryan lost his little brother Tom, then he lost his mind. Matthew was supposed to watch Tom, but instead got drunk and high with his friends while Tom went to the playground and was kidnapped (and presumed dead). Matthew spent a little time in hospital, but now he's back, taking his meds, and moving back in with his dad Jack, who blames him for losing tom. Things are tense at home, and only get worse when Matthew starts hearing Tom's voice (and later, seeing him out of the corner of his eye). Matthew is either re-gaining his brother, or re-losing his mind.

What could've become a fairly standard ghost story is lifted by some great performances--including Matthew's friend Simon, played by the unrecognizable Tom Felton (in his first role not as Harry Potter's enemy Dracoy Malfoy). Also by the intelligence, creepy style, pacing, and reserve of it all. In other words, it succeeds because it is just so very, very British. Or at least, that's the take from this stupid Yank.

Anyway, we're down to the end stretch now. Two movies each tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday and it's all over but the after party.

Jason goes to Dead Channels--Day 3

Just 4 movies last Sunday. Here we go:

First up I started with a retro screening of "Colossus: The Forbin Project". I love it when festivals play classic/retro films, and Dead Channels does that more than anyone (at least, when it comes to retro cult films). I have to make a little confession--I did not grow up as a movie geek. I'm from a large family (I'm the second of six kids), and we tended to do stuff as a family, so dragging the whole brood to the movies was a rare (and expensive) treat. As a result, I have huge, odd gaps in my movie knowledge. I wasn't the kid running off alone watching movies that I was way too young to see. I didn't even see many horror films until I was in college. So Dead Channels is great at filling in my missing movie knowledge (can't wait for "Cut-Throats Nine" on Tuesday)

With that said, even if I were the kid running off to see movies on my own, I was negative 4 years old when "Colossus" was released, so I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway. My loss, although I get the treat of discovering it much later in life. Like...last night. It's the original supercomputer runs amok movie, and while the technology hasn't dated well (computer = blinking lights and grating metallic voice) the message is still dead on--don't hand over control to an ultimate authority. Dr. Forbin leads a team that created Colossus, an enormous supercomputer capable of instantly analyzing all intelligence data, determining the likelihood of an attack, and responding appropriately (Colossus is tied in to our nukes). Colossus turns out to be even smarter than they thought it would be. For example, shortly after they power it up, it discovers Guardian--its Soviet counterpart. Colossus and Guardian start communicating, and decide that humans are ultimately warlike creatures who can't govern themselves. Since they're programmed to prevent war, the best solution is to take control away from humans--even if that means a few little shows of force (nuke a few cities for the good of the world). Forbin and his team desperately try to find a way to stop Colossus--which of course they built to be indestructible. Colossus looks for ways to gain more control, expanding his dominion from the US and USSR to the entire world. Awesome, scary shit, which as I said still holds up well today.

Next up was the short, "Mr. Video". Due to format (PAL vs. NTSC) issues, this didn't play in the short film program Saturday, but will play tonight (Monday) at the 10 pm show. And this was a little bonus screening to make up for missing it Saturday. Anyway, it's a cool, funny short about the video rental business, how pirates are destroying it, and what to do about it. Whatever you do, don't bootleg movies! I can't freakin' stress this enough.

Then the feature, "Who Is K. K. Downey?" I actually saw this at Cinequest, and here's what I wrote at the time:

"Who is K. K. Downey?" Inspired by the JT Leroy hoax, Terrance and Theo play in a crappy, crappy band. Theo has written a scathing novel, "Truck Stop Hustler", but can't get it published because he's a privileged suburban white boy, not a smack-addicted child prostitute. By the way, the 8th birthday party scene in the book is hilarious, disturbing, and I'm counting it as part of the festival's birthday theme [Jason's note: Cinequest had a birthday theme going on this year]. Terrance gets the brilliant idea [Jason's note: I think I got that wrong, it was Theo's idea, but now I'm confused] that if they need a real truck stop hustler to sell "Truck Stop Hustler", he'll pretend to be one. The novel becomes K. K. Downey's autobiography, Terrance becomes Downey, and the book and Downey become the coolest thing to hit the Montreal club scene in...forever! Which totally pisses off Terrance's ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, Connor Rooney (not Connerooni, Connor...Rooney). Basically, a hilarious excuse to skewer the hipster paradigm while throwing out as many descriptions of crude, demeaning behavior as possible. I loved it.

Yeah, I'll stick by that, and add that seeing it again it was even funnier than I remembered. I'll also note that I saw "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" (based on the J. T. Leroy book) when it opened Indiefest a couple of years back--before everyone learned that J. T. Leroy was a hoax. Bruce Fletcher, the founder of Dead Channels, was the Indiefest programmer who played "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things". So this was a sort of inside joke/homage to getting swept up in that hoax.

Next up was one of the most puzzling movies of the festival, Nicolas Roeg's "Puffball". I think I had an ever harder time reacting to this than I did to "Reality Bleed-Through" (which in retrospect was easier to understand than it seemed at the time). But there's a mini-theme running through the festival--whenever I don't know exactly what to make of a movie, they totally transfix me. I may be confused, but I'm sure as hell not bored. Liffey moves to a remote village in Ireland with her boyfriend. She's an architect, and she's rebuilding an old cottage to be their dream home. They make love over a mysterious stone with a hole in the center, and she gets pregnant. This attracts the attention of an odd family--Mabs, a mother of three (who wants a fourth--a son), her reclusive daughter Audrey, and her mother Molly who's a witch. Mabs and Molly are especially interested in the unborn child, who they believe is actually Mabs (they were casting spells to increase her fertility, and they believe she stole their magic, or something like that). They work to curse Liffey, steal her child, etc. Strange goings on, old gods exerting control. A weird universe with just a hint of the supernatural (or not, depends how you read it). As I said, I don't know what to make of it, but I was transfixed. I should watch more Nicolas Roeg movies, then maybe it'll make sense (or not).

And finally, the night ended with the world premiere of "A Gothic Tale" by Justin Paul Ritter, the baby-faced psycho who previously brought "Katiebird: Certified Crazy Person" to town. This movie is a wild, emotional ride, a mash-up inspired by three classic gothic stories ("The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, "Heidegger's Experiment" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and "Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson), all narrated by Rowdy Roddy Piper as a homeless man. Mark Heim is a former criminal, in love with Lillian Heidegger. Her father, Thomas, doesn't approve, but is busy with his own experiments in turning back the ravages of time. The Stranger (Ryan McGivern) shows up to offer choices--horrible choices along the lines of "let this person die or let this other person die". It's a screaming nightmare about choices and how they torture you and the ones you love. Okay, I'm going to stop right now because I think that's the best way to sum up the movie. Here's Justin Paul Ritter and Ryan McGivern at the Q&A after the movie:


Unfortunately, I had to run to catch BART home, so I didn't get the chance to do more than shake Justin's hand and tell him well done. But it plays again tonight at 6 pm, so all my local readers should catch it if you have the chance.

Jason goes to Dead Channels--Day 2

This was the longest day of the festival, with six programs. And while Friday was the exploitation day, Saturday was the art house/extreme weirdness day.

The art started with "Golgotha", a comic homage to German expressionist silent films. Golgotha is an old sorceress and scourge of mankind. She's killed all her guards, all that's left is her loyal goblin Minion (who is awesome, I want a goblin minion of my own!) Tired, old, and bitter she relates her life story to Minion. While the scenes of her talking to Minion are in sound, the flashbacks are silent--mostly, they play around with sound and silence. Oh yeah, and the music is cool, too. Anyway, her life story--she was the daughter of Victor the Vicar and his wife. They were murdered by the evil king MacGuffin, who takes her and raises her as a princess. But she grows up with revenge on her mind, learns magic, and eventually gets her revenge of MacGuffin, and on Prince Debonere. But her hatred, revenge and cruelty leaves her alone with nothing but her loyal goblin. But really, from the opening title cards on (through the cheesy dragon puppet) this movie is all about the fantastic comic twist on Germen expressionism (think the films of Murnau through a more intentionally comic sensibility). And here's the lovely director/writer/producer/editor/everything-er who made this, Karla Jean Davis:

For anyone who likes to see the bad guys win, "Golgotha" plays again on Wednesday, October 8th at 6 pm.

Next up was the program of Fantastic Short Films. This plays again on Monday night at 10 pm, and hopefully by that time they'll have a workable copy of "Mr. Video" (PAL vs. NTSC issues). But even if they don't, I'd recommend seeing this series. Here's the quick rundown:
"Auga (Water)"--A Spanish film about car thieves and a car with the world's best anti-theft device (drowning)
"Foet"--As in a shortened form of the archaic spelling of foetus. Abortion meets the world of high fashion, with a new, ultra-pricey form of leather. Awesome
"The Horribly Slow Murderer With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon"--Richard Gale terrorized the world last year with a paperclip in "Criticized". Now he's back with ordinary object horror in this trailer for a 9-hour epic (seriously, the trailer alone is 10 minutes long). Absolutely hilarious, but you'll have to watch to see what the weapon is. Now I look around at everything and think 'How could I kill someone with this?'
"Mina"--Little girls are so hard to control. Even for vampire families.
"Ending Eternal"--Speaking of vampires, when you've lived for 500 years sometimes you just want to end it all. But good help is so hard to find. C'mon, this apartment is full of wooden objects and you're going to try to shoot me with a gun?!
"Dead Bones"--Ken Foree (original "Dawn of the Dead") produced and stars in this cannibal western (with a cameo by the typecast Ruggero Deodato) about a bounty hunter, a criminal, and a gory little half-abandoned town. Awesome.

Here's a picture of Richard Gale ("The Horribly Slow Murderer With the Extremely Inefficient Weapon") and Justin McConnell "Ending Eternal". By the way, I don't want to jinx anything but Richard Gale claims he's very close to being able to start his feature-length version of "Criticized" soon and Justin McConnell is working on his feature length "Eternal" (the sequel to "Ending Eternal").



So next up was probably the artsiest film (and the one that made me say "What the fuck?" the most), "Reality Bleed-Through". As an intro, co-producer/co-writer Matt Boland explained that lead writer and director Jimmy Creamer hates everything (especially religion and government, but also rainbows and kitty-cats and anything living) and that sensibility infuses the film. In a bleak future, plague-ravaged world, the sun melts people (but apparently not other living things like trees). Ethan hallucinates and believes (due to a government experiment) that staring into TV static will give him messages that will make the world make sense. A cult called Sister Salvation worships the sun in the form of a God named Shylipis (anagram of syphilis?) A guy who's trying to fix the broken water system catches his wife in bed with his best friend and kills him. Everyone flees to Ethan's house (including a woman and her brother who's dying of the plague) before the sun rises. Ethan hallucinates, psycho guy kills his wife, Ethan believes he's God, starts killing/saving everyone. Yeah, I'll stick with my original response, "What the fuck!?" But I have to say, there's also a lot to recommend this film. There are some scenes of true beauty, and I've seen movies that are more difficult to comprehend. I have a hunch this would reward multiple viewings. You just have to be a little bit of a sick, misanthropic bastard to want to watch this movie again. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. Here's co-producer/co-writer Matt Boland, who swears he's not as hateful as Jimmy Creamer:


Next up was a Philip K. Dick inspired short, "Peekers". People are trying to get you to play hide and seek. Which is odd enough when they're adults. It's odder still when you just got off the phone with them and know they're actually in Cleveland.

This actually introduces the first far-reaching theme I've noticed in the festival--obscured faces. I've noted them in "Latchkey's Lament", "From Inside", "Bad Biology", "Gutterballs", "Reality Bleed-Through", and "Peekers".

And the theme continues with "Plague Town". A family (well, a father, his two feuding daughters, and his new wife) are in Ireland to connect to his roots and re-connect as a family. They miss the last bus back to civilization, and very quickly it's obvious we're in a lost-in-the-woods slasher flick. While the setup is pretty standard, the execution is spot-on, as this film becomes a nasty little beast. They're attacked by genetic freak children (who cover up their faces with masks--theme!) You know, just giving a plot summary doesn't do it justice, because it makes it seem like a redundant, "seen it before" movie. But I swear, it just works. Maybe you've seen it before, but you haven't seen it done this well very often. Just look at the freakin' poster and you'll get an idea of the great look and feel of the film. I suppose if I could nit-pick on one thing, it was very dark. And I don't mean in tone, it was too dark on the screen to see everything that was happening, but I'm willing to bet that was an issue with the projection, not with how the film was shot. Here's director (and long time horror producer and documentarian, making his feature debut) David Gregory with his leading lady Erica Rhodes:


Next up was "Tokyo Gore Police", the outrageous Japanese splatter-comedy which I saw at Hole in the Head. Here's what I wrote back then:

"Tokyo Gore Police" [was made] by the same guys (Tokyo Shock) who made "Machine Girl". This one is possibly bloodier and definitely much more fucked up (and yes, that's possible). In the future, the Tokyo police force is privatized. The heroine is a
bad-ass cop, daughter of a cop who she witnessed murdered in a shocking opening. That's left her with a bit of a wrist-slashing habit, but she's also trained to be the baddest killer on the force. Her target--engineers. Not nerds who build stuff, not train drivers, but genetically altered freaks whose wounds turn into weapons unless you find the key-shaped tumor inside them and destroy it. Engineers are usually mindless adrenaline freaks, but the force is facing one that calm and meticulous in cutting up his victims. Worse yet, he implants a key tumor into the heroine, making her an engineer!

The look of the film owes an equal debt to "Blade Runner" and "Robo-Cop", and like the latter breaks the tension with hilarious mock commercials, both anti-suicide PSA's and pro-cutting cutesy fashion knives (WTF?)

This was already nearly the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. Then they got to the underground genetic modification fetish club--prostitutes with penis noses, protruding eyeballs, snail shells, and a flesh chair that gives the crowd a golden shower. Yep, this
is the weirdest fucking thing I've ever seen that still made linear story sense.

Yeah, I'll stick by that review. Especially the last line. I also have to note something interesting about this day's film. While Friday featured exploitation with massive loads of nudity, Saturday was almost completely nudity free. In fact, the only nudity was freak genetic altered nudity (like a giant penis gun--killer cocks are are a recurring multi-year theme at Dead Channels), special effects instead of real people. So I'm not sure if it counts. After an explicit Friday, Saturday was practically nudity-free. Interesting, I wonder what Sunday will bring.

Particularly interesting in this light was the midnight program, which started with "Las Historias Mas Sexy Del Mundo Part One". Imagine watching just the setups to porn scenes, and cutting out just as people are about to get naked. Oh, what a tease. Hilarious.

And then, the vintage documentary/scare film, "Weird World of LSD". Or actually, is this really a "drug scare" film, since it made LSD seem pretty cool (oh no, she took LSD and now strips down to her underwear in public! Her boyfriend must be furious!). Come to think of it, I'm not sure if it counts as a documentary, either. It does count as a "What the Fuck" experience. 1950's/60's (it was made in 1967, but looks more like the 50's) people drop acid and freak out. Some of them never stop hallucinating! What-the-freak-ever. Maybe it's better to watch on LSD. It certainly doesn't make much of a case that LSD is bad.

And that was Saturday at Dead Channels.

Jason goes to Dead Channels--Day 1

Or maybe it's day 2.  Depends on if you count the opening party Thursday night as day 1.  Anyway, I guess I don't, and I'm counting this as the first 'real' day of the festival, because...I don't really have a good reason.

Anyway, first up was the animation program, starting with "Latchkey's Lament".  Rumor has it, Guillermo Del Toro was so impressed with this film that he offered director Troy Nixey the director's chair for his remake of "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark".  And I'd say I can understand why Del Toro would like this film.  It's got an excellent sense of creepy style and a charming sense of romance in telling the story of a pair of keys in love, and the monster who steals keys and devours them through a keyhole in his neck.  Trust me, this is even stranger and more impressive than I can describe it.  Oh, and though I mentioned this was the animation program, this was actually a blend of live-action and CGI. 

The feature, "From Inside", however was completely animated.  John Bergin directed this movie based on his graphic novel about the bleakest train ride ever.  It's a future wasteland (there's a brief reference to a nuclear holocaust, but it's not that important).  It's all told through surreal images and voice over by the main character, a young pregnant woman riding the train.  Around the train is nothing but destruction and desolation.  People are starving, and it literally rains blood.  About halfway through, I started thinking it might have worked better as a short--so much bleakness over such a long time is a lot to take.  But then a strange thing happened.  I think the surreal images with the sad but matter-of-fact voice over hypnotized me.  Although I still think there's a case for shortening the movie, I have to admit it kept me transfixed for the entire time.

Next was the official opening night gala presentation of "Let the Right One In", a Swedish film of young love and vampirism.  Oskar is a 12 year old boy who is bullied at school.  He's a quiet, timid boy who clips stories of murder and fantasizes revenge.  One local murder story involves a victim drained of his blood (in a rather comically inept attempt at kosher butchery, interrupted by a poodle).  That murder was committed on behalf of Eli, a little girl who happens to a) live in the apartment next door to Oskar, and b) be a vampire (her "father" committed the murder to harvest blood for her so she wouldn't go out and kill for herself).  Oskar meets Eli one night, and despite her warnings he falls for her.  And she's not actually bad, she just needs blood to live, so it turns into a very sweet story of young love.  Director Tomas Alfredson shows a great command of story and character, a wicked sense of humor, and some real invention in framing the killing scenes (the underwater scene is fucking brilliant).  Awesome movie.

And speaking of awesome movies, Phil Mucci's "Far Out" was a great warm up for the next film.  Here's what I said about "Far Out" when I saw it before (at the Vortex room Halloween party):

[It's] an awesome little piece about a groovy 70's party where everyone is too damn high to realize there's a vampire in their midst.

Well, that was pretty succinct, but I'll stick by it.  And I'll add...it's far out!

And then the feature kicked my fucking ass.  Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case", "Frankenhooker") tops everything with "Bad Biology".  Jessica is a smut photographer with 7 clits (that she knows of) and a 2 hour gestation (if she has unprotected sex, she pops out a doomed mutant 2 hours later, which is doomed to die).  The male lead (I forget his name, and apparently it's not that important) was born impotent, but self-medicated to the point where his giant steroid-addled cock has a mind of it's own (and it's the mind of a junkie).  Obviously, these two were made for each other.  And this movie was made to offend everyone but delighted me.  I think Henenlotter has made a masterpiece of uncompromising outrage, if he can just get a distributor.  The special effects by Gabe Bartalos (who directed "Skinned Deep", one of my favorite little oddities) are fantastic.  I'd say if there's one weak point it's the acting, which has never been Henenlotter's strong suit (although he does have a certain talent for finding women who will get naked and fake orgasms on screen, and finding a guy who will punch himself in the cock on screen).  Instead he lives on outrageous imagination, and he's living large here.

And finally, the midnight movie, "Gutterballs".  This is an homage to 80's horror films, and it's a sick sadistic little beast from Canada.  It all takes place at a bowling alley, where two teams compete in a tournament after hours (they know the owner).  Problem is, they hate each other's guts, and the first night ends with possibly the most sadistic, extended, and exploitative rape scene in recent memory.  The next night, they continue their competition, but now there's an insane killer wearing a bowling ball bag over his face and killing with bowling weapons (pins sharpened to stake, crushing heads with bowling balls, etc.).  Yeah, it's silly, but also very, very bloody, and with lots of nudity (including a surprising amount of male nudity.  Guess they like flashing their dicks up in Canada).  But they manage to keep rather close to the 80's slasher sensibility, and don't play it too campy.  They let the campiness flow organically from the ridiculous premise.  If they had forced it further into intentionally campy spoof territory, I think it would've fallen apart (or just been really, really stupid).

And that was Dead Channels Friday.  The main theme emerging from Friday--with a birth, a giant monster cock, and bowling pin rape, I'd have to say it was all about stretching vaginas to the limit.  This is shaping up to be one hell of a festival.

Jason goes to the Dead Channels opening night party

And I'm so freaking hung over, I don't know how I'll function today at work. Thank you, Alan, for driving me home.

So other than high states of inebriation and general carousing, there were also a few movies at the party last night. I suppose I should put up a big caveat. I was drunk as hell last night, so I don't quite remember everything. But first up was another short, the locally made "Picklock" by David King. A man, a woman, and a cat in an apartment. Something about disappearances, and a monster with nasty claws hiding in the shadows. I remember I thought the monster was pretty cool and it had good use of shadows.

And finally, the feature, that I really don't remember well. But what I do remember is pretty forgettable. "Toomorrow" is a sci-fi musical from 1970 starring Olivia Newton John. She's a member of a band called Toomorrow. Space aliens hear their music (odd, considering they have no ears) and for some reason decide they need those vibrations to live. So they kidnap Toomorrow, and then I wake up an hour later when the movie is ending. I'm not sure I should count this as one I've seen. Whatever.

Anyway, the festival starts in earnest tonight. Things to look forward to (based on little more than my impression). Tonight there's "Bad Biology" by Frank ("Basket Case", "Frankenhooker") Henenlotter (which plays with Phil Mucci's psychadelic bloodletting, "Far Out"). "Tokyo Gore Police" plays tomorrow night. "Who is K. K. Downey" is a good one I saw at Cinequest (and must see for anyone who got roped into the J. T. Leroy drama a couple years back). And Sunday night there's "A Gothic Tale" directed by Justin Paul Ritter, the funny little psycho behind "Katiebird: Certified Crazy Person" (from Hole in the Head a couple years back). And really, I trust the whole series will be pretty great.

Jason watches "Ghost Town"

So after the free sneak preview of "Flash of Genius", I 'accidentally' stumbled into another auditorium that was just starting the comedy "Ghost Town". And what do I see after 2 hours of watching Greg Kinnear? More Greg Kinnear! He opens the movie as a smooth talking jerk who's having an affair. And then he gets hit with a bus. And, of course, since this is a ghost movie, he's still around for the rest of the movie (which is good, for the record I like Greg Kinnear).

But, if you've seen the previews, you know Ricky Gervais is the star of the movie. He plays anti-social dentist Bertram Pincus. He goes to a hospital for a routine colonoscopy, and when he wakes up the next day he can see people that no one else sees. He doesn't immediately realize they're ghosts, since he doesn't like to touch people anyway. But the fact that he steps around them gives the ghosts a clue, and they start flocking to him as the one guy who sees them. Seems they have a lot of unfinished business keeping them here on earth, but Pincus has no interest in helping them--he just wants the damn 'hallucinations' to go away. Greg Kinnear is the main ghost, who need his help to keep his wife (Tea Leoni) from marrying a real jerk (not like he was much of a catch). She happens to live in his building, and in fact has been pretty rude to her for a while. But when Kinnear forces him to notice her, he becomes a little smitten. This works perfectly for everyone--Gervais gets the girl, Kinnear gets peace, and Leoni escapes being married to a jerk. Except, of course, that Gervais is a freaking jerk (and her fiance is actually a human rights lawyer and all around good guy). Well, I won't spoil more of the plot. It's pretty funny, and I had a reasonably good time.

I should also mention that I've never seen "The Office" or "Extras", the two shows Gervais is most famous for (and I know, I should see them, they're hilarious. You don't have to tell me). I've seen him in small roles and on talk shows, and he always seemed pretty funny. This was my first full dose of him in a starring role, and I accept the fact--he's a funny, funny man.

Jason watches "Flash of Genius"

With thanks to a friend for getting me into this sneak preview/press screening.

You might not think a movie about the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper and the ensuing 12 year patent litigation would be that interesting, but Greg Kinnear deserves tons of credit for making the central character--Dr. Robert Kearns--so compelling. Dr. Kearns was a professor of electrical engineering, living in Detroit in the 60's. The invention itself is a little perfunctory. After a bit of a buildup, it works the first time. He teams up with some friends in the auto parts business, and is soon demonstrating his invention to Ford. They like the idea, buy he wants to manufacture it himself. They string him along, then suddenly want out (shortly after he gives them a working unit to send to regulators in Washington, D.C.). The next year, Ford introduces intermittent windshield wipers on their cars. He tries to fight, fails, and has a little nervous breakdown. He comes back, tries to move on with his life, but that fight is still there. He gets a lawyer (Alan Alda, in a brief role), that gets him a settlement offer of $250K (which he thinks he can bump up to $400K). He declines, he goes it alone, and the fight consumes him as his children grow up and his wife leaves him. It's based on a true story, so if you've done your research there's no real surprise at the end. Even representing himself, after 12 years he finally wins. I will say two things--first, the scene of him interviewing himself on the stand is pure comedy gold that wouldn't have been so brilliant if Kinnear hadn't played it so straight (watch it, and then imagine Jim Carrey playing it and realize how silly and slapstick it could've been). Second, there's a distinct bittersweet quality to his victory--maybe even more bitter than sweet. The fight had cost him his marriage, most of his 6 children's childhoods, and for a time his mental health. As an engineer (okay, physicist. The point is, as a technical weenie), I appreciate his accomplishment and how it proved patents mean something (in the end, he was doing it more for that than for the money), but if I were in the same position I'd have bailed out at $400K. If not then, certainly near the end when Ford offered $30 million.